US coalition representative fails to answer question about encounters with Russian military forces in Syria

Colonel Ryan Dillon, the spokesman for the US-led coalition, gave an evasive response to a question regarding direct encounters between American and Russian servicemen, Interfax-Military News Agency reports on June 20.

Answering a journalist’s question about direct encounters between the US-led coalition and Russian forces, the colonel said that Syria is a complex battlefield where many elements are present: these are the US-led Coalition, Russian, and Syrian democratic forces.

Earlier, Pentagon spokesman Adrian Rankine-Galloway stated that “as a result of recent encounters involving pro-Syrian regime and Russian forces, we have taken prudent measures to reposition aircraft over Syria.”

On June 18, near Raqqa, the US-led coalition shot down a warplane belonging to the Armed Forces of the Syrian Arab Republic (SAR). This incident caused a re-escalation of tension in Russian-American relations. Russia announced its complete withdrawal from the flight safety memorandum over Syria. The Federation Council (Russia) reacted negatively to the incident of the downing of the Syrian airplane on Sunday. It added that in order to eliminate further threats from the US, Syrians now have all the rights to use their air defense systems. The Russian Ministry of Defense condemned the US military action, saying that such actions by the coalition are considered a direct violation of international law, being classified as military aggression. As a result, representatives of the coalition announced yesterday that coalition aircraft would be relocated.

This is not the first incident caused by the Western coalition aggressively violating international norms. In early April 2017, the US launched Tomahawk missiles at a Syrian air base near the town of Homs.